Baseball

Santa Clara Falls For Second Straight Day, 5-4, At Saint Mary's

MORAGA, Calif. -
For the second day in a row, an opponent's late rally doomed the Santa Clara baseball team, as the Saint Mary's Gaels scored four times in the seventh inning to erase a three-run deficit and held on for the final two frames, capturing he weekend series against the Broncos with a 5-4 victory in Moraga.

The Broncos (24-25, 8-10 WCC) will now turn its sights on the upcoming four-game week, beginning with Tuesday's 2 p.m. contest at Nevada. SCU will then return home next weekend for the final WCC series of the year, a three-game set against the ninth-ranked San Diego Toreros.

Jon Karcich hit his third home run of the season Sunday, a three-run shot, while David Hoffmire had a pair of hits. On the mound, Donald Brandt, although not factoring into the decision, struck out four and allowed only one run on six hits over six innings.

But once Brandt left Sunday's game, things quickly went south for the Broncos. Leading 4-1 to start the bottom of the seventh, Justin Kuehn took over, and lasted only two batters, giving up a single to Ryan Young, and a double to Eric Cattoni. Steve Kalush relieved Kuehn, but couldn't get an out from the three batters he faced, surrendering a two-run single to Michael Cippola, and, following a double by Randy Wells, a go-ahead, two-run double to Anthony Aliotti that put SMC up for good. Kalush ended up being charged with his second loss of the year.

Santa Clara managed to get two on with two out in the ninth, but SMC's Taylor Stanton got Gabe Alcantar to fly out to right as he picked up his fifth save of the year.

After the teams had traded runs in the first inning, the Broncos picked up three runs in the fourth. Carl Bacon led the inning off with a base hit, followed two batters later by Hoffmire's infield single. Karcich then delivered the boom with his third homer of the year, a shot to left off of Gael starter Brandon Berl that put SCU up 4-1.

But Berl would settle down, holding SCU scoreless the next three innings, as he picked up his fourth win by going seven innings and allowing only four runs and striking out three.